FOOTBALL: IHSA weighing district proposal

Football may get rid of conferences

Edwardsville quarterback Kendall Abdur-Rahman awaits the snap during the second quarter of a game against Collinsville on Oct. 21 inside the District 7 Sports Complex at EHS.

Edwardsville quarterback Kendall Abdur-Rahman awaits the snap during the second quarter of a game against Collinsville on Oct. 21 inside the District 7 Sports Complex at EHS.

FOOTBALL: IHSA weighing district proposal

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The departures of Granite City and Collinsville from the Southwestern Conference tore at the fabric of a league that completed its 95th football season in 2017.

If a proposal to implement a district format in Illinois prep football gains approval this winter, the tear began by Granite could leave the SWC torn completely in half.

The plan to enable the IHSA to assign schools to eight- or nine-team districts for football – all other sports would retain their current conference system – is designed to alleviate the problems caused by conference realignment that has now reached the SWC after 17 years without a membership change.

Granite City opted out of the league in all sports, while Collinsville is getting out for football only after the 2018 season. But those decisions will be mostly nullified if a growing movement to relieve schools of the scheduling burden in favor of the IHSA assigning schools to districts and setting the schedule.

“There’s good and bad,” Edwardsville coach Matt Martin said of the proposal. “With Collinsville getting out of the conference, with Granite already out of the conference, we’re having a hard time finding games. The positive is, there are bigger schools across the river that we can play. And when I play those St. Louis schools, I can almost guarantee at least a sophomore/JV game and maybe a freshman game too.

“The issue with districts, for me, is No. 1, the travel costs for varsity. And do you play underclass games?”

There certainly are hurdles to overcome to get a majority on board for a change so radical as a district format. And no hurdle is higher than the geography and population of the SWC and what Alton athletics director Jeff Alderman calls “the seven of us in this little pocket down here.”

Granite City makes eight the number of Class 7A/8A football schools in the Metro East without a like partner within a two-hour bus ride.

“That would be my biggest fear,” Alderman said of an SWC split that could come with district play. “But I know that it is going to involve us traveling up north of I-80.”

And that requires more money from programs and coaches growing weary of fund raiser seizing a bigger role in the job description for coach.

“For us, the travel cost is the big issue,” Martin said of trips to suburban Chicago that approach $5,000 just to transport the varsity. And unless, as Martin suggests, the IHSA kicks back some of the revenue earned from playoff gates to cover additional travel costs, the financial burden will fall on the travelers.

The four largest SWC schools Belleville East (2,561 enrollment based on last year’s figures), O’Fallon (2,407), Edwardsville (2,364) and Belleville West (2,158) theoretically could be assigned to a Class 8A district with Minooka (2,653), Plainfield South (2,566), Plainfield North (2,302) and Plainfield East (2,239). The closest drive between that north-south divide is the 232 miles separating Edwardsville from Minooka.

The four smallest SWC schools – Alton (2,009), Collinsville (1,924), Granite (1,812) and East Side (1,289) – could be fitted in a Class 7A district with Bradley-Bourbonnais (2,053), Moline (2,040), Normal (2,123), Pekin (1,927) and Quincy (1,824). “The travel is definitely going to be a problem,” Alderman said.

Last season’s playoff assignment sent the Redbirds to downtown Chicago, where Alton earned its first postseason victory since 1992 by beating Chicago Lincoln Park 32-12.

Postseason travel is the “nature of the beast in football,” Alderman said. “Come playoff time, we all have to make that trip. But to do it three, four, maybe even five times a year, I’m not sure. That would be rough.”

Alderman is sympathetic to the surge in conference realignment and the scheduling problems incurred by many schools throughout the state. “We’re going through a little bit of an upheaval now, just replacing Granite City,” he said.

The IHSA football advisory committee has recommended that district assignments be “based on enrollment and geography.”

Giving weight to geography over enrollment could solve the SWC problem that leaves unhappy all 16-18 schools potentially filling two districts in two classes. A solution could be keeping the SWC together as one district in one class.

Last season’s SWC standings would have sent East Side, Edwardsville, West and Alton to the playoffs under the proposed district option, just as it did under the current format.

The eight SWC schools – including Granite – have an average enrollment of 2,065 and would be a logical fit in Class 7A. There are no good 7A options for Quincy, which faces onerous travel regardless the direction, but the Blue Devils could fit if a nine-team district is the aim.

“That would be awful easy,” Alderman said of that possible district. “And for Edwardsville and O’Fallon and Belleville East in 8A, I know that’s tough for those folks. I just think that the travel and the quality is definitely going to be a factor in that.”

Edwardsville was the second smallest school in the 32-team Class 8A field in 2017 and owns a 7-4 playoff record in four appearances in 8A. But the Tigers, along with O’Fallon, are not a misfit in 7A. Only East’s enrollment keeps it off the 7A/8A bubble and East Side is a 6A school that has opted to play up in 7A.

Having to continue playing what would basically be a SWC schedule is certain to draw protests from Granite and Collinsville, but the IHSA may be short on sympathy.

Alderman admits to not yet having time to offer serious study to the football committee’s proposal, but he likes the SWC district option at first glance.